Chicago (Ill.) -- History -- To 1875 -- Fiction; Fires -- Fiction; Great Fire, Chicago, Ill., 1871 -- Fiction; Historical fiction
In closing, he wrote: "Here I am, Dennis Fleet, who a few days since
thought the world scarcely large enough for what I meant to do, standing
contentedly and gratefully in Pat Murphy's shoes. I will not conceal
from you, speaking figuratively (the fates forbid that it should be
literally true), that I hope to outgrow them, and arrive at something
better before many months pass. In the meantime I am indeed thankful
for the means of winning honest bread for us all. It is quite a
come-down from the classics and law to the position of porter and man
of-all-work in a picture and music store, but if God means me to rise
He can lead me upward from my lowly standpoint as well as from the
most favored that I could have chosen for myself. I have learned that
if I will _trust Him_ and do present duty thoroughly, He will not forget
me."
On Monday morning, half an hour before the specified time, Dennis stood
at the store. Impatiently he walked up and down before what would
become the scene of joys and sorrows such as he had never before
experienced. But we will not anticipate.
In due time Mr. Schwartz appeared. He gave Dennis a cool nod, and said,
"Glad to see you so prompt," then muttered again to himself, "New
broom."
In Mr. Schwartz's slow, plodding soul the fire of enthusiasm had never
burned. He was eminently conservative, and looked with wary suspicion
on anything that appeared like earnestness. In the midst of a driving,
bustling Western city, he stuck in the mud of his German phlegm, like
a snag in the swift current of the Mississippi. Yet Mr. Ludolph found
him a most valuable assistant. He kept things straight. Under his
minute supervision everything had to be right on Saturday night as
well as on Monday morning, on the 31st of December as well as on the
1st of January. He was one who through life would be satisfied with
a subordinate position, conscious of the lack of enterprise needful
to push his own way in the world. His painstaking, methodical spirit
was just the kind to pervade a large warehouse like that he had in
charge, and prevent loss and confusion in the multiplicity of objects
it contained. Pat's careless Irish ways had vexed his soul beyond
words, and now Dennis's eager manner suggested a hare-brained Yankee
youth who would raise a dust for a week and then be off at something
else. He was therefore cool and curt, seeking by frostiness of manner
to nip the budding enthusiasm that annoyed him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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